Store gazing: Inside Lululemon’s new Madison Avenue digs

Last Friday, Lululemon opened its newest store on Madison Avenue at 85th Street. It’s the powerhouse fitness-fashion brand’s sixth location in New York City—and second one on the Upper East Side.

At this swish address, on a high-end fashion thoroughfare, we browsed the Luon-laden racks among Tory Burch look-alikes. But there were few other outward signs of the zip code.

There's a bit more elbow room between the racks (Photo: Well+Good)

In fact, Lululemon Upper Upper East feels a lot like the other stores that its New York devotees know, love, and do free yoga in. It has that almost industrial-loft look, with wide-paneled wood floors, exposed pipes, and hanging lights, like it could be a yoga studio after all.

One slight upgrade: The L-shaped layout, high ceilings, and generous elbow room between the racks, which give it the luxury of space. (Could it be that not all the stock has arrived, though? Time will tell.)

And a surprise: a mega-mirror positioned at the entrance seems uncharacteristically (or transparently) vain, giving you a seriously magnified look at how good your butt looks in Lululemon yoga pants.

And true to its manifesto of supporting the local fitness community, the Madison Avenue store has wasted no time in knighting brand ambassadors—most of which are Upper East Side fitness luminaries—like Brynn Jinnett, creator of the Refine Method, and Pure Yoga’s Loren Bassett, creator of Bassett’s Bootcamp. In fact, you can attend Bassett’s free hour-long Power Yoga class at the store on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 10:00 a.m. She’s not responsible for any shopping decisions you make while in tree pose. —Lisa Elaine Held